U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.

National Center for Marriage Research

Current Opportunities

Background
Current Opportunities

Background

On September 25, 2007 the Department announced a cooperative agreement to establish the first-ever National Center for Marriage Research (NCMR) to improve our understanding of how marriage and family structure affect the health and well-being of individuals, families, children, and communities, and to inform policy development and programmatic responses. The awardee for the national center is Bowling Green State University.

The Center pursues an ambitious vision to build a new capacity for family research by providing intellectual leadership using an innovative, cross-cutting approach that integrates sociological, psychological, developmental, economic, and demographic perspectives to:

Address key research questions on the relationship between family structure and adult and child wellbeing, the role of family processes and resources, the formation and maintenance of healthy marriages, adolescents' transitions into healthy marriage in adulthood, pathways to family formation outside of marriage, comparisons between married and unmarried families, and the roles of marriage and relationship skills education programs (including faith-based organizations);
Establish a strong network of multi-disciplinary scholars who focus their research on families by conducting seminars and conferences, running small grants competitions, and developing visiting scholar and postdoctoral programs;
Develop and train future researchers whose work explores questions of family structure and function by mentoring junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate assistants.
Improve research methods and data to permit a fuller understanding of the effects of family structure in various domains across the life span by producing marriage and family structure measurement guidelines, piloting survey data, developing databases of marriage and divorce data, and organizing data workshops; and
Actively disseminate research findings through a dedicated web site, research briefs, conference proceedings, news releases, and targeted e-mail to the policy and research communities as well as program practitioners. The Center coordinates with the Administration for Children and Families' Healthy Marriage Resource Center, particularly around communication with marriage and family strengthening program practitioners.

To learn more about the Center and its current activities, please visit: http://ncmr.bgsu.edu.

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Current Opportunities

External Grants Competition

The National Center for Marriage Research (NCMR) seeks to fund up to four proposals ($20,000 per award) to support innovative research that contributes to theoretical, conceptual, methodological, or empirical developments about family responses to financial strain. A large body of research indicates that marital and family behavior is related to economic circumstances. For instance, men and women with positive economic prospects are more likely to marry and stay married than their disadvantaged counterparts. However, the current economic climate calls for further research on the familial consequences of economic uncertainty.

Financial instability encompasses several domains, including employment, income, or poverty; food or housing insecurity; asset accumulation; consumption patterns; and public assistance usage. Economic factors may affect family structure and processes as well as individual well-being and these outcomes are likely to vary across the life course and among subgroups of the population. Projects may use qualitative or quantitative data. Those that employ innovative methodological approaches, new measurement development, or novel conceptual frameworks are especially desirable.

The deadline is February 1, 2009. Applicants must have completed a Ph.D. in a social science discipline. Preference will be given to untenured scholars with full-time academic appointments.

Please see http://ncmr.bgsu.edu/external.html for further information.

Visiting Scholars Program

The National Center for Marriage Research (NCMR) invites applications from faculty and researchers for our Visiting Scholars program. The NCMR is able to offer office space, computing support, and opportunities to participate in NCMR seminars and activities on the BGSU campus for up to 2 scholars. Unfortunately, the NCMR does not have funds available to support salary, travel, or research expenses for visiting scholars. Scholars are invited to visit for a variety of lengths of time, ranging from an academic year, semester, summer, or one month.

Visiting Scholars from a range of social science disciplines (e.g., demography, economics, history, human development, psychology, and sociology) are encouraged to apply. The NCMR is especially interested in hosting scholars conducting work in one or more of its research themes.

Please see http://ncmr.bgsu.edu/visitingscholars.html for further information.

Research Affiliates

The National Center for Marriage Research (NCMR) invites applications for Research Affiliates from active scholars conducting research on marriage and families in a range of social science disciplines (e.g., demography, economics, history, human development, psychology, and sociology). The NCMR has more than a dozen BGSU Research Affiliates and a growing list of Senior Research Affiliates.

Research Affiliates may contribute at least one paper per year to the NCMR Working Papers series and include their affiliate status on their curriculum vita. Affiliates may be asked to participate in various NCMR activities, such as conferences, policy seminars, or data workshops. Research Affiliate status will be conferred for a renewable three year term.

Please see http://ncmr.bgsu.edu/researchaffiliates.html for further information.

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Last updated: 12/23/08